


I Die, You Die, We Live

by Wolf_of_Lilacs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 18:02:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20393866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolf_of_Lilacs/pseuds/Wolf_of_Lilacs
Summary: Harry has had a name on his wrist ever since he can remember.





	I Die, You Die, We Live

**Author's Note:**

  * For [exarite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exarite/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [exarite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exarite/pseuds/exarite) in the [TomarryFlashExchanges](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TomarryFlashExchanges) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> You only find out your soulmate when they die.
> 
> In the forest, Harry and Voldemort wake up. They have each other's names.

Harry has had a name on his wrist ever since he can remember. Dudley always used to made fun of him for it when he was feeling especially nasty: "Your soulmate's dead? Boo-hoo. Is the freak gonna cry?"

Harry always ignored him. His soulmate was dead, his parents too, and he just had to make due.

Then, of course, during his second year at Hogwarts, he met Tom Riddle, and understood that his soulmate wasn't dead at all.

But Ginny was dying, and Harry destroyed the diary anyway.

It's a secret he keeps and gives to no one, except Ginny, because she alone can understand, he convinces himself.

Lord Voldemort is his soulmate, who is not dead, who killed his parents and many others besides. It's difficult to except, and some days he wonders he did to deserve it.

*

Voldemort kills him in the Forbidden Forest, and Harry doesn't die. He fakes his death long enough to be carried back to Hogwarts by a sobbing Hagrid, while Voldemort walks ahead of him, Nagini and Bellatrix triumphant beside him. Until—

"M-My Lord, is there something on your wrist?" Bellatrix stammers.

Voldemort stops, raises his hand to eye level, and frowns. Oh, right. Harry squeezes his eyes shut before anyone can see him looking.

"Harry Potter," Voldemort breathes, "is most definitely dead. Never speak of this to anyone."

Hogwarts does not take the news of Harry’s death at all well, and in the confusion of battle, Harry puts on his Invisibility Cloak and rushes off to give any help that is needed.

But he cannot avoid facing Voldemort for long, who stares at him in shock when he takes off the Cloak and rushes between him and his current opponents. "No! Impossible." His protest is strident.

Harry holds out his own wrist. "You've died, too. It's something we've got in common." The _Tom Marvolo Riddle_ stands out starkly in the newly risen sun that peaks through one of the Great Hall's upper windows.

Voldemort doesn't seem surprised, just resigned. "What shall you do, Harry?"

"Your Horcruxes are all gone now," Harry replies. "What is left for you?"

Voldemort does not reply for a moment. All the duels have stopped around them as people begin to take notice. Some are crying in relief at seeing Harry alive. But none of them press forward yet to greet him. This is it. This is the end, and they won't interrupt it.

"Bella is dead, too," Harry points out. Mrs. Weasley's doing; it had been quite the sight. "And others are running away. What do you have left?"

_Harry Potter_ is written in Harry's messy scrawl, and Harry can read it upside down. Voldemort traces it, thoughtful. "You know," he says, and Harry isn't sure he likes the expression twisting his thin lips, the considering look in his crimson eyes, "I always wondered if I would be the first on record to survive to meet my soulmate, if I should die first."

"You have?"

Voldemort had put up an Anti-Eavesdropping Charm, Harry realizes, otherwise no one would be watching so fixedly; they'd be gasping in horror instead. There'd be chaos if they could hear this.

And then Voldemort grasps Harry around the waist and Disapparates. Harry doesn’t have time to cry out.

They materialize in a cave. Voldemort does not let him go, but kisses him with a hunger that surprises him, his hands tightening to the point of pain.

And…

There must be something to soulmates, because it is the best feeling Harry has ever known. Harry kisses back, pushing any guilt, any fear, aside.

"I suppose I have you," Voldemort says in answer to Harry's question from moments ago. "You won't try to kill me now, will you, Harry? You don't have the heart for it."

Harry wants to move away, just a bit, but perhaps staying right where he is may be the best thing he can do. "You can have me," he says, "if you don't kill any of the people I love."

Voldemort scoffs at "love", but nods. "So generous." And he kisses him again, this time with teeth.


End file.
